Mary King's Close: Edinburgh's Buried Street

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The history of the close is documented in burgh records. Ghost stories are reported here as stories, not as evidence of the supernatural.

A street in the Old Town

established Edinburgh's Old Town grew along the ridge between the castle and Holyrood, with narrow closes running steeply down from the High Street, lined with tall tenements housing people of all classes. Mary King's Close was one of these. It took its name from Mary King, a widowed merchant burgess who lived there in the 1630s and died in 1644.

Built over

established In the mid-eighteenth century the town council built the Royal Exchange on the north side of the High Street, intended as a meeting place for merchants. From 1753 the upper storeys of the tenements in Mary King's and neighbouring closes were demolished, and the lower parts were used as foundations. Parts of the close remained in use, and people lived and worked there into the nineteenth century. The Royal Exchange later became the City Chambers.

The plague legend

traditional The most popular story about the close is that during the plague of 1645 its residents were walled up and left to die, and that their ghosts haunt it. Historians have found no evidence for this. In Edinburgh's plague outbreaks, the sick were usually moved to camps on the Burgh Muir outside the city, and their houses cleansed. The close continued to be inhabited.

Ghost stories

established Stories of hauntings in the close are old. In Satan's Invisible World Discovered (1685), George Sinclair described ghostly apparitions, including a disembodied head and a severed arm, experienced by Thomas Coltheart and his wife in a house in the close.

traditional The best-known modern story concerns "Annie", the ghost of a little girl supposedly encountered in one room by a Japanese psychic in the 1990s, who left a doll for her. Visitors have since left thousands of dolls, toys and gifts in "Annie's room".

The attraction

established In 2003 the close and parts of neighbouring closes opened as a visitor attraction, The Real Mary King's Close, with guides in costume telling the history of the people who lived there. It is one of Edinburgh's most popular attractions.

• Mary King was a widowed merchant burgess.
• The close was built over by the Royal Exchange from 1753.
• People still lived in parts of it into the nineteenth century.
• The story of plague victims being walled in is a myth.
• "Annie's room" is filled with dolls left by visitors.

• Myth: plague victims were walled up in the close and left to die. Historians have found no evidence for this. In Edinburgh's plague outbreaks the sick were usually moved to camps on the Burgh Muir outside the city, and the close continued to be inhabited.
• Myth: the close was sealed and abandoned when the Royal Exchange was built. The upper storeys were demolished from 1753 and the lower parts used as foundations, but parts of the close remained in use and people lived and worked there into the nineteenth century.
• Disputed: the ghost stories. The hauntings are reported as stories, not as evidence of the supernatural. Accounts go back to George Sinclair in 1685, while the story of "Annie" dates from the 1990s.